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tv   Your Money Your Vote  CNBC  March 6, 2012 8:00pm-9:00pm EST

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your money, your vote hosted by john harwood and maria bartiromo. it begins right now. >> break news this hour. polls in three states have just closed. nbc news projecting that mitt romney will win the massachusetts primary. moving west, oklahoma, nbc news projecting the race is too early to call. and in tennessee, the same thing, too early to call in tennessee, john. >> right now the biggest battle ground state, ohio, is too close to call as well by nbc news. that is the place where mitt romney has to beat rick santorum to preserve his claim as the inevitable nom knee. newt gingrich expected to win his home state of georgia. that might keep him in the race for now. mitt romney row jected as the winner in virginia where only he and ron paul were on the ballot. romney also the projected winner by nbc news now in vermont.
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>> welcome to our special super tuesday your money your vote coverage. i'm maria bartiromo. >> and we're i'm john harwood. 424 delegates are up for grabs tonight in 11 states across the country. >> all this happening on a day when your money went on a wild ride. stocks posting their biggest losses of the year today. dow jones down 203 points, more than 1.5% on the day. the s & p 500 down nearly 21 point, also more than 1.5%, and the nasdaq down 40 points, 1.4%. >> we've got an economic task force here to break down whether or not our economic recovery is at risk and what impact this race for the white house will have on housing, jobs the price at the pump. >> the ceo of kimberly-clark willway in on taxes, regulation and a lot more. all night long we'll have the best in the business in politics with us. a republican strategist, the
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former treasury secretary and the former press secretary under george w. bush. >> first our amon jabbers has been digging through the exit polls in seven states tonight to give us a mindset into others. >> one of the big surprises out there tonight is the state of ohio. and momentum was moving in mitt romney's direction. in the last few days in the ohio republican primary. take a look at when voters actually decided. you're looking at 20% of republicans in the state of ohio who voted just in the last few days. 29% in the last few weeks and 22% earlier in 2012 and 18% just before that. so that's a big move at the very last minute in the ohio primary. let's see how those folks voted. looking forward to romney. 45% of the ohio republicans who said that they decided within the last few days voted for romney. 34% of those folks voted for
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santorum. 15% for gingrich and just 6% for mr. ron paul. now among those late deciders, romney led rick santorum by 45% to 34% but romney trailed on another treasure. that's the question of whether or not he understands average americans. this has been a problem for mitt romneyal along, the question of understanding average americans. 32% said rick santorum, 23% said mitt romney, 19% paul and 18% said newt gingrich. guys, clearly a problem for mitt romney there in that question of is this the kind of guy who gets you and your problems. >> thank you. let's bring in tonight's all star panel. good to see you all. let me get your take on what if anything has changed right now in the economy. just recently more worries about the eurozone. today of course that was what the market was reacting. to on the heel of some better than expected data in terms of the u.s. economy. are things changing
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economic-wise, neil? >> things are getting marginally better. but it's on the back of massive central bank intervention. the fed's policies, language changes, those are really helping but they have not cured the underlying disease, the big deficit issue that we have, the big deleveraging that we're still going through. the markets today woke up and realized they haven't cured the problem yet, just borrowed time. >> so kim, whatever the cause of the improvement, though, has to be good news for barack obama and how does mitt romney counter act the feeling that the economy is getting better even though we had bumps today? >> we have eight months. and the economy will maybe get better a little bit. but we have to understand the economy got better but there's still a lot of people that aren't working. it's the lowest employmented in a long time. so those people will start to inch back into the economy and the unemployment rate is bound to go up. >> can mitt romney appeal to those voters?
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>> i think over eight months mitt romney is going to get better as a candidate. he better. we got to hope that he will. but i think he's going to get better as a candidate. i think we'll get out of this primary. he's going to have to start learning how to talk to the voters. even with all of this economic news getting better, you have to understand obama's still at 50%. 50% is not good. it's not a good place to run for president. >> let me bring in another big issue which has not been getting the kind of coverage that i think it will get at some point on the campaign trail, and that is energy prices. oil at $105 a bare represent does this become a problem for the president? >> sure it does. we went through it in the bush administration. we first cracked $4 a gallon gasoline prices. it's a very difficult issue for any administration to deal with. in particular this administration because of the heightened tension over issues like the keystone pipeline, like the moratorium in the golf drilling. whether it did or did not have
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an impact on actual gas prices but that's the way people are going to feel about it, and it could have a very real impact in an economy that has shown marginal improvement. we want to see this traction improve throughout the rest of the year. but i think what today showed is that there are still a lot of risks out there, energy prices one of them, racheting down some of the global forecasts is another. >> for somebody who's been in the cockpit of the treasury department with a gas crisis i wonder how you think the president is handling this. republicans are saying to you, mr. president, you want gas prices to be higher. his answer was give me a break. what president wants gas prices higher? but he does have energy policies which would be assisted by higher gas prices. how do you think they're processing it as a matter of governance right now? >> the truth it in the short term there's not a lot they can do. we are a price taker of global oil. we are a price taker of global gasoline. >> strategic preserve not an
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issue? keystone, those kinds of things can help on the margin over the long term. keystone would not make a difference between now and november when the president is running for election? >> would sproh? >> no. it can help if there's a temporary disruption. unless they released it in massive quantities and risked releasing it. the problem is what if you release it and it runs dry? it's only a useful tool if you have a finite disrupg of a known quantity of time. >> with middle east tensions right now we don't know what's going to happen with splice in the gulf. >> that's a big wild card. we're waiting t call ohio here. we've got oklahoma, gop primary too early to call as west santorum is leading. how much is the gop hurt itself with all of this in fighting? >> kim? >> it's hurt. it's hurt. we need to start winding it down. we need to get onto -- the problem we've had is not talking about what we've just been talking about. talking about the things that
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the president -- that are his achilles heels. whatever you say about the keystone pipeline perceptually it was bad. we should have been talking about it. whatever you say about gas prices it's bad to have economic policy where your guys are saying they want $8 gas prices. >> to stop you. "we've got to start winding this down." first of all in the republican party who's the we? are you guys the establishment? can elected officials do it? because the tea party seems to have different ideas. and who is going to make rick santorum and ngzing in get out of this race? >> does the party come together? >> probably. the party will come together once we get to a clear nominee and no matter who it is out of this group i think the party will come together. the question is how long will it take? >> do you have any idea who it is in this group? >> if you're asking me to bet right now, i think mitt romney has the clearest path. you're going to hear a lot of time over and over tonight after we look at the delegate count
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the math gets really difficult for everybody else in this race. it does. i think the most likely we're talking about mitt romney. but i see the party rallying behind that eventual nominee. it's just going to take a lot of time. and we're seeing a race almost unlike any other before in the avenues open for candidates to stay in the race, raise money, and continue with negative ads. >> so you can't get newt gingrich and santorum out of the race as long as foster freese or sheldon aid ellison writing big fat checks for gingrich's spuper pac you can't stop that, right? >> you can't. and those are true believers. >> but at some point if it becomes clear that mitt romney is the candidate, guys like sheldon adelson will shift very quickly in terms of the money behind romney. do you disagree? >> i agree. i think going back to the jobs topic which to me is the most important topic for the next nine or ten months, i think governor romney has a real
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challenge. the unemployment picture is very mixed. for people with a college education unemployment is 4%. for people without a high school education it's 16%. and so mitt romney needs to find a way to communicate his economic message to people who are not educated. he has a real challenge in doing that. but they're the ones who need to hear it if he's going to be successful in eventually beating the president. >> that of course has been his weakness in the primary. although i think we have to point out in the democratic primaries in 2008 hillary clinton did much better among the working class democrats. but barack obama did okay in november. >> exactly. so in terms of jobs, energy, what other issues are we going to hear about tonight? and for the next several contests? so far there's been so much fighting amongst the gop players, we are missing the issues. >> i think the third big issue that's still around the economic -- in the economic bucket is spending and fiscal deficits. we're still talking about huge numbers, numbers that we haven't
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really dealt with until very recently where we measure annual deficits in trillions of dollars. that's still frightening for a lot of people. i think if jobs and the relative feelings about growth in the economy improve, that is a problem that's not going away. there are no quick fixes for it. nothing will get done this year in congress between the white house and the house and the senate to fix that problem and to make anybody feel good about it. so that's going to be there and it's going to be in it for a long time. >> very good point. we'll come back to our stellar panel throughout the evening. thanks, everybody. let's take a look at a live shot of the romney headquarters now in boston. a festive mood tonight. coming up next, who does big business want to see prevail tonight? and what impact will the race for the white house have on taxes, economy and regulation? the president of kimberly-clark with perspective. beyond super tuesday, the road map in the republican battle royal. the contests still to come and what's at stake in each one.
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you're watching a cnbc special report, "your money, your vote."
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welcome back to cnbc's live coverage of super tuesday. results are still coming in across the nation and the stays could not be bigger particularly for big business. what does the corner office want from tonight. mr. falk is ceo of kimberly-clark. let's talk about the field right now and which candidate from your standpoint represents the biggest impact on business.
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>> you know, it's really hard to tell at this point, maria, until we get a closer choice. thankfully the primary season doesn't start until may in texas. and so we'll make a decision then. but there's a lot of time between now and the election that we can work on other things, like corporate tax reform, like getting a budget passed for 2013. >> we've talked about tax reform now for several years. what kind of tax reform would you like to see and what would have the biggest impact in terms of business productivity? >> it's simple, i think. i testified in front of the senate last summer and talked about this. give us a much lower marginal rate, down 25% all in, federal and state, give us a simpler system. we'll push all the incentives in to help pay for the lower race. and tax us on our u.s. territorial income only. that's the way really all of the rest of the major countries in the world tax their corporations these days. >> and you said you would be willing to give up most tax breaks in exchange for a lower overall rate. >> that's right. the secret is if you get the
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rate low enough the incentives don't matter so much. so let's lower the rate and the incentives aren't as valuable and everybody knows what the rules of the game are at that point. >> what are you seeing in terms of the economy right now? have things changed? i feel like this election has been changing-month to-month. six months ago folks would have said that the gop had an easier shot than just one month ago where we actually saw pretty positive improvements in the economy. how do you characterize things right no now? >> we do see some green shoots of growth coming through on the economy. and we obviously pay a lot of attention to ceo mom as we call her. so our ceo moms are still careful shoppers. but they're just an innovation. and we're actually starting to see more positive signs of growth in the category. so i'm optimistic about 2012. >> what about the jobs picture? earlier today we spoke with ken langone who said he doesn't think that the unemployment is at 8%.
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it's more likely 13%. how do you see it in terms of unemployment? >> well, i think whichever number is right it's getting marginally better. so we're probably going to hire 1,000 people in the u.s. this year. that's about our replacement rate, so we're not net adding to our payroll but we are replacing. and so we have good jobs for those kids coming out of college. >> what do you think business wants to see from tonight and from the contests ahead? >> you know, i think we want to see confidence in the future. we want to see a clear vision. we want to know what the priorities are. what's our energy policy? what's our immigration policy in let's balance a budget or pass a budget for the first time in three years. those are the basic functions of government. and i think we expect that from our leaders in washington. >> and you don't feel like we've seen that? >> well, we haven't had a budget in three years. we don't really have clear direction on of at love lot of those areas. in january 2013, the bush era tax cuts expire.
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we're going to hit the debt ceiling again. and by the way, the mandatory budget cuts that were agreed to at the last debt ceiling deal go into effect. and those are three things that are going to cause business confidence to waver here. >> and do you think that lack of clarity is among the reasons that businesses are not picking up the pace of hiring? is this actually holding them down? >> i think confidence in the future is certainly a factor. and so the lack of clarity by government policy, the question marks about regulation. we've got more dodd frank regulation coming, healthcare regulation coming. so all those things collectively i think weigh on the confidence of leaders to invest for the future. >> where will you invest in the future? in the united states? or are you planning to put more money outside the u.s. like so many multinationals are given the growth numbers that we're seeing outside the u.s.? >> well, obviously for us we're going to continue to invest where we've got growth opportunities. so if you look at the diaper
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category today, most moms in the u.s. use disposable diapers. they maybe use five a day if they're in the category. in some of the emerging markets they might use five diapers a week. as those incomes improve there's going to be more growth for us outside the u.s. and we have to make all of our products pretty close to where we sell them. so we are adding capacity outside the u.s. >> so you're adding capacity outside. what economies would you be adding capacity at outside the u.s.? >> certainly china would be big for us, russia, latin american, india is growing at a very rapid pace. we're adding some capacity in the u.s. don't get me wrong. we do sell products like depend and poise and those are doing very well as our population ages a bit. we've also got some fantastic brands that are growing well in the u.s. our kotex feminine brand and clean ex cottonell brand. we'll continue to invest wherever we can find opportunities around the world.
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>> thanks for weighing in. tom faulk from kimberly-clark. keeping you updated on the gop race in oklahoma right now, right now 40 delegates, it's too early to call. we will have the developments as we get them. a lot of races too early to call, john. you've got santorum doing well in a handful of these races. >> oklahoma is key like tennessee. places in the south and west that are potential breakthroughs for rick santorum. if he can make those, then he's got a little bit of momentum heading into the contests next week. one of the questions is, what keeps rick santorum's candidacy alive and what causes him to get out of the race? if he can win something tonight we're going to be watching over the next couple of hour toss see what comes in and whether or not he can pull off those victories, then he's going to have enough fuel, money to stay in this race for a little bit further. so with this hour the ever important state of ohio is still up in the air. no republican nominee's ever
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become president without winning that state. our kayla toushi is live in columbus with more. kayla, polls have closed. what do voters appear to have on their minds? >> reporter: we spent the day here in ohio state capitol canvassing voters, what was on their mind, the issues of foremost importance for them. polling stations, local businesses, even a diner thrown in the mix. and even though predictably a lot of them sided with the leading candidates, rick santorum and mitt romney, the other resounding candidate we heard was anybody who can beat barack obama. >> romney's got all those good things that will make obama look very bad. >> who's going to lead us to the recovery of our economy? and also who's going to be able to create jobs? >> there's a lot of good views by each republican candidate, but it's split 50-50.
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>> ohio always surprises me. >> and even though it looks like it's split pretty much down the line, too close to call, probably going to be a little while before we get those numbers. santorum has a pretty bare bones operation here in ohio. but we know at least romney's team here on the ground is down the street at a watch party at one of the bars. but as far as we know it won't necessarily be a surprise for ohio. this has been a photo finish for some time, john. >> and kayla, when you talk about ohio voters did you see much of a difference between the more affluent voters to the extent you could tell them and the working class voters? that's been the split in this primary. rick santorum has been doing well with working class voters, mitt romney's been doing better with the college-educated voters, the ones who have higher incomes. he has been better able to connect with those people. >> reporter: yes. and john that was definitely something we saw all day. of course the resounding support for santorum was coming on socialism. they viewed him as a true pure conservative with a voting record. but on the flip side, people who
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are supporting romney were saying, he's coming from the private sector. he's unaffiliated with what's going on in washington right now. and the so-called stalemate there. and that they really believe that his experience in the private sector with business, with jumpstarting growth, would be good for the economy. you could definitely tell especially a difference in the time that voters were going to the polls. a lot of people coming in the morning before they were going to work. a lot of people on their lunch breaks. through the day you could definitely -- >> back to some of the economic conditions. when you think about the key indicators that have told the difference between presidents who are faced and bogged down by a bad recovery in an election year and those who have seen a turn around, ronald reagan in 1984, bill clinton in 1996, disposable income, economic growth, joblessness. do you see this lining up in a
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positive direction for obama so that he can approach the home stretch of this election in a much more confident position? >> i think you have to make a distinction between levels and trends. i think the trends are cautiously moving in the president's direction. but levels we still have a long way to go. but i think human sentiment -- >> what's most important, levels or trends? >> i think it's trends. if you look at ohio with unemployment in ohio is falling more quickly than it is around the country. so ohio unemployment rate is about 9.9% which believe it or not is lower than the national average of 9.8%. i think ohioans are feeling more confident. i think they're feeling more confident about their future. and i think that bodes well for the president. >> so is this going to be the story, would you say, come november? do you think things continue to improve which of course is a big positive for the president? >> a big positive for the president but still many global economic risks. europe is not resolved.
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oil could tip us back into recession. >> iran is a wild card as well. >> iran is absolutely a wild card. any one of those could tip us back. when you're growing us slowly it doesn't take much to tip us back over. >> coming up, up until now the data on the economy has been getting stronger. the markets have rallied. today a 200-point selloff in the dow has thrust the economy and america's financial future back to the forefront. who's got the right plan for your money? we'll debate it next. first tonight's results are giving us great indications of where things are headed. still there are several more important contest in the week ahead when the nbc special report returns.
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w. that's so cool! yeah, that was awesome! [ cheering ] [ tom ] i wanna see that again. ♪
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welcome back to this super tuesday cnbc report, "your money, your vote," late evident results at this hour. ohio still too close to call. 63 delegates too close to call with mitt romney at 42%, rick santorum at 36%. nbc news saying that oklahoma is too early to call as well. with 40 delegates in oklahoma, the same thing for tennessee, still too early to call as well. as you can see a 55 delegates in tennessee. the markets back front and center today as stocks are marching backwards since hitting 13,000. all the major averages sliding big time today in a broad-based selloff on worries about the economy on the heels of renewed worries in europe. markets in asia tonight following the lead of the united states, down at the open in the asian markets that are open.
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let's check the futures here at home indicating right now fractural gains at the open of course we're watching this closely as things change quite quickly. worth noting they are thinly traded of course the futures market. so really no indication about how we open tomorrow. >> exactly. but aman sprjavers, what do youe so far? >> you've been talk about the southern states and how crucial they are in republican primaries. tennessee is one of the most socially conservative states in the country, at least seven in ten primary voters there call themselves evangelical christians. and in our exit poll we see more than four in ten or 42% say it matters a great deal to them that their presidential candidate shares their religious beliefs. it makes a difference in how they vote as well. take a look at the graphic and you'll see. voters who say that their candidate's religious beliefs
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matter a great deal favored rick santorum by 51 to 19% for mitt romney. among those who said religion doesn't matter much or at all in their vote, romney had a 39 to 20% advantage. so john, that has been the story of this election all along. rick santorum getting those socially conservative voters, mitt romney playing much better with economic conservatives. that's the schism in the republican party and we're seeing that playing out tonight in the state of tennessee. >> exactly,amon. that is a geographic overlay as well to the demographics you were just describing. kim alfono is here to talk about where this race is heading and where that implication might be. we have contests in oklahoma and tennessee. rick santorum is hoping to do well. if he does, next week look at the states that we've got. mississippi and alabama as well as hawaii. what what are the stakes for rick santorum? what does it mean if he could break through in mississippi and alabama? >> he almost has to win alabama
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and mississippi to continue on. if he doesn't, then he really has to hang up the cheleats i think. >> to continue healthy or at all? >> i think at all. to him the pressure goes to say really after that anything you do is a vote for barack obama. you're playing for obama at that point. i think even after tonight there's a lot of pressure on him to go on if he doesn't win really big in tennessee, if he doesn't win really big -- if he doesn't win in ohio or win really big in tennessee, it's almost to say to him, going on tonight is for obama. >> then of course he's going to go to unfavorable territory. illinois the week after next week. but then on april 3rd you've got washington, d.c., the state of maryland and the state of wisconsin. that does not seem to be rick santorum territory, especially wisconsin if he loses both michigan and ohio. >> i think so. and i think wisconsin would be the last ohioesque kind of place for him. i think that's the last
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blue-collar guy stand that he could make. i think that's the last little man stand that he could make if any place. >> let's go three weeks after that, connecticut, delaware, new york, pennsylvania, rhode island. yes, pennsylvania's rick santorum's home state. but where else can he win on that map? >> i think at that point if he hasn't done something dramatic an spectacular by then, not a chance. >> you've got may 8th got a set of contests, indiana, north carolina, west virginia. let's play devil's advocate. if rick santorum has been able to break through, establish some momentum, he would seem to have some potential in this complex of states. i think so. but if we're here at this point, it's been a pretty outrageous primary season at this point. >> panic among the republican establishment? >> panic. it's chaos. dogs and cats living together. it's crazy. >> then you go to june 5th, the very last day of this season. california, new jersey, you've got new mexico as well. new jersey of course is going to be great for mitt romney, we
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should assume. california will as well. it was interesting, kim, i was talking today to a political scientist at davidson college that said, we've just now gotten a call. tennessee for rick santorum. that is a shot of momentum for him that he could use. and we were talking about the southern races next week. >> it is. >> but to win the nomination, to get 1144 delegates, josh putnam of davidson college says he needs to win 50% of the vote or more in every remaining race, including tonight. can't do it. very, very difficult for him. >> mathematically very, very difficult. it's a conundrum going forward. it's certainly very, very hard on the republican party. we really need to move forward in going forward to fighting obama. and this becomes very difficult for the party. >> do you totally discount the possibility of a white knight candidate coming in at the end? >> absolutely. >> because romney has stalled? you worked for mitch daniels of indiana who's one of those who is seen as a potential white knight.
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any way that he gets into this race or anyone else, chris christie? >> well my prayers every single night are that he would. i don't think it happens. >> don't think it happens. there you go. it does not appear that rick santorum has got an auspicious path, although now that he's won the state of tennessee he's got a victory tonight. we'll see what happens in oklahoma and whether that gives him a bit of momentum going forward. >> all right. really interesting contests here, john. thanks. straight ahead, results still coming in from several states. we'll have a real-time update on the winners in each. later on, high unemployment, higher gas prices and plunging home values. the economy still has issues. we'll debate which side has the best message for the markets and the masses our special coverage will be right back. stay with us.
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coverage of super tuesday voting. want to update you on one important state in the south. ternz has gone to rick santorum. that's one where mitt romney had hoped to come from behind and beat santorum, try to shut down the race a little more rapidly. ohio the state romney must win tonight to preserve his claim as the frontrunner remains too close to call. we'll keep you updated. the bottom line for voters this super tuesday, economic issues. brian westbury is chief economist at first trust advisers. dan greenhouse is chief global strategist with bit and a senior contributor. brian let me kick this off with you. give us your sense of where we are in the economy.
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a tough day in the markets today. are we back to worrying about things like jobs and oil? or do you think things have turned a corner? >> yeah. i think things have turned a corner. if i were looking for a catalyst to why the market was down today, i would say the fact that the house passed this chinese tariff bill that the senate had passed. it's now on its way to the senate. we're starting or potentially starting a trade war with china right now. that's a reason for the market to go down. but on the economy as a whole, i think it's getting better. i think the reason it's getting better is that ever since the election of november 2010, government spending has been relatively flat. in other words, the share of gdp that goes to the government has been slowly coming down. and as a result, the economy is slowly getting better. and so i think that's going to continue this year. and i think it's going to be an
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issue in the election. >> dan greenhouse, brian said that concerns about a potential trade war with china spooked the markets today. how do you suppose the markets would react, and brian i'll get your take on this in a moment as well, to the fact that mitt romney, should he be elected, has said on day one he will declare china a currency manipulator? >> i don't think that's going to happen. at least let's hope it's not going to happen. although admittedly i think if mitt romney were to do that it's not quite the end of the world that some would assert. i don't think he's ultimately going to do that. i will however take total issue with brian's other point. >> excuse us for one second. we're going to go to newt gingrich's headquarters in atlanta. he's won the state of georgia. he's just taken the podium. this is a moment for newt gingrich. let's take a listen. [ crowd chanting newt newt newt ]
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>> you know, this is amazing! i hope the analysts in washington and new york who spent june and july explaining our campaign was dead will watch this tonight and learn a little bit from this crowd and from this place. [ cheers and applause ] >> we survived the national elites' effort to kill us in the summer because of you. because people who said, we are not going to allow the elite to decide who we are allowed to nominate. and so with your help -- [ cheers and applause ] >> -- thousands and thousands of people came to newt.org.
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and with your help, we survived the two most difficult months of a career which goes back to august of 1958. and june and july were really hard. it was precisely because the national elite, especially in the republican party, had decided that a gingrich presidency was so frightening that they had to kill it early. but you, you wouldn't let them do it. [ cheers and applause ] . all right. newt gingrich at his campaign headquarters in atlanta celebrating the primary win in georgia tonight. we are back with our panel on economics. dan greenhouse with us as well as brian westbury. brian, let me get your take on what we know so far tonight in terms of the winners in the gop and these primaries. what do you want to hear in terms of fixing the issues that remain for the u.s. economy? what do the viewers and the voters out there want to hear tonight? >> yeah.
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that's a good question, maria. what i can say as an economist is i think the number one problem, the reason we have an 8% unemployment rate, the reason gdp has only grown 2% in the last 2 1/2 years at an annual rate instead of 3 or 3.5 or 4 is because government spending and regulation have grown too much. and i think the republican candidates are all vying -- i mean, mitt romney in this past week came out saying he was going to get government spending down to 20% of gdp by the end of his first term. that's a good i think target. ron paul and rick santorum are calling for even bigger spending cuts than that. i believe voters, at least on the republican side, understand that the size of government is a very big issue. not just on moral grounds that government probably shouldn't be doing all of the things that
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it's doing, but on economic grounds. the bigger the government is, the smaller the private sector is, the smaller the private sector is the harder it is to grow and create jobs. >> brian, let me play off something newt gingrich just said. are you part, brian, of the republican political and financial elite that's been trying to strangle the gingrich candidacy as he just said? he want just going after the media. he said it was the republican elite that was trying to stop him. >> i would not call myself part of the republican elite, john. i have not tried to strangle anyone. i want to see a very lively debate. and by the way, let me just disagree. reagan and bush -- >> we have breaking news here, brian. oklahoma is going to santorum. nbc news projecting the winner of oklahoma with 40 delegates at stake, rick santorum just coming in. the oklahoma primary to rick santorum. your thoughts on that. >> that's important news on top of the victory in tennessee. that is doubtless going to keep rick santorum alive in this
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race. improves his financial donations. position him to compete and make a battle showdown with mitt romney in the south next week in alabama and mississippi. remember, republicans are a conservative party. and they're a southern-based party. if rick santorum can show that he's got the heart of conservatives and the south, makes it harder for mitt romney to march steadily toward that nomination. >> let's not forget ohio still too close to call. between romney and santorum. >> if rick santorum somehow pulls out a victory in ohio, look out in this race. >> yeah. things change quite quickly. >> dan greenhouse, you wanted to get in a moment ago. >> if you're going to go to commercial that's fine. but i just didn't want to get out of the spot by saying nothing brian westbury has said at any point here is factually. and i like brian. >> what was inaccurate, dan? what is inaccurate? >> to assert that the only reason that just about every -- let me be clear from the outset here from an opinion and a
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philosophical standpoint, i agree with brian. from a mathematical and economic standpoint the idea that somehow the only reason that what's going on economically and with the jobs picture and the housing picture is due to the elevated level of government spending is absolutely not borne out in any data by anybody anywhere at all. i'm not saying it's not contributing to it. >> what's the reason, dan? >> well, i mean, listen, let's be crystal clear. the primary reason we're having the type of recovery we have, the primary reason is the type of expansion that we had and the type of crisis that we had. clear. the role government has played an important part in why this recovery has been in some cases slower than it otherwise might have been. but to say that the primary reason is government spending and regulation is in no way proofable in any way at all. >> brian, do you want to weigh in here? want to respond? >> yeah, absolutely. there's no way anything dan just said is provable.
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rogoff and reinhardt -- >> i think this is "saturday night live." >> rogoff and reinhardt is what he was just talking about, a famous book that's just come out that's said in recent years come out and said that after financial crisis the economy grows more slowly. i don't buy that at all. the reason i don't is because after financial crisis the government always jumps in, spends a bunch, regulates a bunch. i think it's the spending and regulation, the reaction of government, that causes the slower growth, not the financial crisis in the first place. >> brian westbury, dan greenhouse we're running out of time. still to come, the view from the democratic side of the aisle on this republican race and the battle ahead in november. >> what strategies could the democrats be developing as tonight's results unfold? we'll tell you about it next. stay with us.
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when bp made a comt to the gulf, we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open
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for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home.
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welcome back to cnbc special coverage. let's bridge in jake sea ward, former counsel to obama treasury secretary timothy geithner. jake let me ask you this. we've got a race where rick santorum has won two victories tonight. republican race is going to go on. we saw from our nbc "wall street journal" poll earlier this week it's hurt the republican party, hurt mitt romney. how much of a benefit is it to obama that this has been
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prolonged. >> it's great for the obama administration because it contrasts ideas with the economy on the republican side. in the frontrunner here mitt romney has gotten pulled further and further right out of the mainstream on not just some social issues but really on some economic issues. that's inevitable in a primary. it always happens. but longer it goes, the more that's going to be a force. >> compare the positioning this president is in right now to where bill clinton was in 1996. >> i worked in the '96 campaign. the president was in pretty good shape just because it emerged that bob dole was going to be the nominee pretty early on. >> romney is going to be a stronger candidate than bob dole, you'd agree? >> it's hard to say. dole, we worried about that campaign right up until the very end. i think a lot of people thought it was over in september and august. and i remember i worked on that campaign right up to the end. we worried about it to the end. because these races are
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incredibly unpredictable. i worked on the '92 campaign for bill clinton. at this time he was in third place in the polls. so you can recover. the democratic primary last time around was pretty brutal. >> the other issues while these guys are fighting amongst themselves the president has not had to answer some of these questions about where we are in the economy on energy, on unemployment. so that's also a positive for the president. >> yeah. it was strange today. he did go out with an economic message in his press conference. and then the press conference which really is dominated by the questions were all about basically foreign policy. >> and middle east. tone yes, how do you see what's gone on tonight? >> romney had a chance to deliver something approaching a knock out blow tonight. he won't get a chance to do that largely because of the tennessee win. we'll still wait to see what happens in ohio. but he was the only one who had that opportunity. neither gingrich nor santorum could deliver a knock out blow. >> if he's the nominee can he
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repair the damage incurred so far? >> of course he can. jake's noting what '92 looked like and what 2008 looked like are really telling. you can turn that page. but this has been a particularly -- this campaign has been marked by sharp rhetoric more than other campaigns. >> tony fratto, jake see ward, thanks so much. >> thanks for joining us. that will do it for our special coverage, "your money, your vote." go to cnbc.com for the latest results. have a good night. we'll see you tomorrow.
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